The sun is shining, the birds are singing, even the bees are buzzing and last week I discovered a new nail look that I love. A matte top coat on top of glitter nail polish. Revolutionary! Well, maybe not for the world at large, but it is for me.

Putting a matte topcoat over the glitter was just a way to pass the boredom and frustration of writers block but it’s actually super pretty. Plus, it tones down the whole glitter polish look just enough that it’s not so in your face. It’s a new favourite for me, especially with Models Own Emerald City glitter and China Glazes Matte Magic!

It’s Lent at the moment and despite not being religious, I’ve given up chocolate so I obviously have show off my most Easter Egg-y nail polish. This makes my nails look like a Mini Egg (my favourite chocolate of all time that I’m craving so bad right now) and I love it.

655 – Cupcake Nail Lacquer in MintI’m not generally a fan of textured nail polishes, but this one is slightly different with the gritty bits being different colours to look like sprinkles! This is a super easy polish to use, I just needed to put on three coats and it dried so quick it took no time at all and didn’t need a topcoat. Getting it off wasn’t as hard as you’d think either, sure it’s no plain polish but it wasn’t as bad as glitter.

A b-e-a-utiful NOTD today. I can’t stop glancing at my nails! It’s one of those nail polishes that just brightens your day to look at and is possibly my favourite colour of all of the KIKO polishes I picked up. You can see the others here!

533 – Nail Lacquer in Pearly Golden GreenYou have to be really careful with this one to get very thin layers as it’s not the best at drying the thick layers but the formula makes this pretty easy and it’s super opaque because of the pearl in it! Love! You can get away with two thin coats because of the shimmer but I liked three because I like a bit of thickness to my polish.

Today I have to show you todays festive nails. Yes it’s another green, but not from Kiko! I bought the Formula X glitter nail polish in ‘Drawn To You’ in Rome and hauled it here. It’s a beautiful gold shimmer with green glitter at about €15 a bottle, a little expensive but it was a holiday treat.

I put one coat of ‘Drawn To You’ over OPI’s ‘Jade is the New Black’ to get this effect. It was literally one coat to get this effect, the shimmer is so packed in. It’s not as pretty on it’s own as the gold shimmer doesn’t make much of an affect on nude nails but over dark polish, amazing. I love this glitter. As for the polish, it was a great formula and dried quickly. It did need a top coat to stop the large glitter being rough but it lasted a long time. The pictures were actually taken on the fourth day! Pretty good for a glitter.

What do you think of ‘Drawn to You’? What is your favourite glitter polish?

Another day, another NOTD post. I love this one though, I have it on right now and I keep looking down as I type because it’s so pretty and shimmery. I have nothing else in my collection like this and weirdly, this seems super Christmassy to me. I can’t figure out why though- can you?

268 – Nail Lacquer in Lime GreenThis guy, as you can see, is pretty sheer. I had to put on three coats to get the look above and it’s still see-through but I didn’t need a topcoat as it is super shiny. I personally love the sheer look but you could always use a white base under this one if you wanted it to really pop or save it for nail art looks! As I mentioned in my last Kiko NOTD, their polishes all have really lovely wide brushes which kept this from getting too streaky as well.

Three guesses what Imogen’s favourite colour is? Way back when I was in Florence I happened by a Kiko Cosmetics store nearby the pizzeria I frequented during my stay and picked up some nail polish while I was there as they are all super cheap and a couple were even on sale. I got 7 of them and I think I paid around £10. I’m finally getting around to wearing them and blogging about them so look out for a fair amount of green nails on the blog over the next few weeks!

391 – Nail Lacquer in Grass GreenThis one was actually a bit of a pain compared to the others! It took absolutely ages to dry and took three coats to get a nice even finish. It really needed a topcoat to add shine and even it out but I have an OPI dupe and it’s the same story with that one too. I think it’s just a problem with bright greens but I do love how it looks. So cheerful and perfect for Christmas tree nail art! Kiko polishes all have really lovely wide brushes similar to OPI too- no cheap brushes here.

Just a little NOTD today of this gorgeous Sparkle Sand Effect Colour & Go nail polish from Essence in the colour Hello Rosy! I don’t normally go for pinks on my nails but the sand and glitter look of this is just too cute. It’s just something a bit different from normal.

The application is a breeze with this, the brush is the Essence Colour & Go one which is short, wide and rounded at the top for perfect speed and precision. It’s my favourite brush for nail polishes. The formula helps with this one too as the grainy texture seems to make the drying time super fast.

You only really need 2 coats but I go for three and it leaves a satin/ semi-matte finish. Adding a topcoat doesn’t really do much, it seems to just sink in and I’m not a fan of the shine because it takes away from the texture. The one downside is that it doesn’t last long. The great texture means that it’s pretty solid and it chips within a day or two.

What do you think? Are you a fan of the sand look?

*I received this at the Manchester Essence Event but that has not changed my opinion!

Anyone who follows me on Twitter knows that my second favourite show in the world is The Walking Dead (favourite goes to Firefly because I’m a Browncoat forever) and I painted my nails inspired by this promo. Now tonight is the last episode of the Season so I thought I would post these up!

They were pretty easy to do as well! I put a base coat of BarryM’s White, then got a thin paint brush and started drawing with BarryM’s Grey, eventually mixing it with some random red and eventually adding a little bit of Illamasqua Scarab. Of course, you could do this with any brands you wanted.

Easy and effective, these got a lot of comments- admittedly not all good as some people don’t watch the show and were fairly confused :’) but I liked them either way and they put me in a Season 4 finale mood.

Two posts in one day? With a third possibly on the way? A Christmas miracle! Or I’m trying to catch up with Blogmas and since I showed you a great Christmas nail polish in China Glaze’s ‘Ruby Pumps’, I thought today I’d show one that disappointed. Personally I think negative reviews are just as helpful as positive ones but if you’re not a fan then look away.

I was given the Nails Inc Gell Effect Polish in St James* (what a mouthful) at the Mid-Summer Meet in Manchester and was totally head over heels for the colour and the slight shimmer that showed up in the bottle. I loved putting it on initially as it was very easy but a little thin which meant I found myself scraping it off the sides of my fingers most nails. In fact on my second hand I exclaimed, “Oh this is a nightmare” out loud over a Skype call which made no sense in the context of the conversation.

The colour was immediately great but it needed two coats to get rid of any visible nail line and I did want to put another on but resisted. And then- oh then, I went to have a bath (four hours later) and as you can see in the picture above it started to chip at the tip. Then! The next day I noticed that I had an imprint of my sheets on my nails so the fourth coat went on and a top coat. Needed a while to dry but not too long. And the shimmer wasn’t at all visible.

Would I buy this? Probably not but it has me intrigued about other gel polishes and I may even crack and buy some of the Barry M jelly polishes that I have been avoiding until now.

Have you tried the Nails Inc Gel Effect Polishes? What do you think?

*I was given this at the Mid-Summer meet in Manchester but this hasn’t changed my opinion and I am under no obligation to show it on my blog.

If you’re looking for a Christmassy nail polish, look no further than China Glaze’s Ruby Pumps which is by far my favourite nail look to wear around this time of year. It looks really amazing with the shades of glitter and depth and lasts a good few days with a good top coat. I’m fairly certain this is what I’m going to be wearing on Christmas Day!

This was three coats and a top coat and just look at that shine! Beautiful! China Glaze isn’t available so easily in the UK but you can find it on eBay for a few pounds and I personally use this seller with great success and you can find this particular polish here!